What you'll learn:
- Easy ways to fix common issues including "flat" images, washed out sky, eyes obscured by shadow, low contrast, and lack of definition, details and/or texture
- How to artfully perform basic clean up on your subject's skin
- Useful techniques to pick out details and, in an intelligent way, sharpen selected areas in your photo
- Masterful techniques to get the most out of Photoshop’s powerful adjustment tool, Curves
- How to work with masks and seamlessly blend them
- An efficient and quick workflow based on Adjustment Layers
- A few simple steps to to apply targeted adjustments to make major improvements to your images
- The best way to increase distinction in your portraits and add drama
- “Non-destructive" techniques that will further enhance your images
The secret of creating striking portraits lies in natural-looking, seamless manipulation. Through hands-on work using five unique portrait edits, you’ll take a dive-deep into portraiture specific adjustments such as skin, body shape, eyes and hair enhancements. You’ll also learn how to work with light to create depth and intrigue in your images. Together we’ll study the way your subject is affected by light and its direction, and explore how advanced photo editing techniques can significantly enhance the the balance and beauty in your work.
Sharpen Your Skills
Non-Destructive Workflow
Learn how to combine masks and adjustment layers to achieve your creative vision while at the same time maintaining tremendous flexibility. You’ll be able to create alternative versions of one photo in no time, or revisit your artwork in the future to bring new ideas to life with just a handful of strategic adjustments.
Essential Portrait Enhancements
Establish a solid base for any portraiture edit by first performing a quick clean-up and body shape correction with the Liquify tool, and then a background fix with the Stamp tool. You’ll immediately add impact to your portraits by bringing up the detail in the frame, including hair texture enhancement and intelligent eyes brightening.
Counter Balance the Visual Weight
Learn how to increase the distinction between your subject and the background. Draw your viewers into the frame and add a strong visual punch to get their attention. By bringing up the textures in the environment, you’ll create more dramatic, effective artwork.
Master the Classic “S”-Shaped Curve
Discover this extremely useful technique to target flat areas in your images. You’ll learn how to quickly and precisely add contrast to the scene. And you’ll also experience how to gain more control of your light and shadow contrast by combining “S”-Curve with Layers and Masks.
Low Key Portrait Technique
Play with balancing shadows and lights to build a moody, nostalgic atmosphere. You’ll work with complementary colors to create subtle grading with Curves, and discover how to inject a desired shade into selected luminosity ranges.
Recompose Your Scenes
Explore recomposing your frames so you can get your desired canvas ratio. And get creative by cropping images shot in portrait orientation to square, or recreate missing background elements to achieve a more compelling and seamless composition.
